THIRD PERSON POV
"This is most concerning." Tech agreed with Fern, following her and Echo to the wall. The latter acted quickly and locked into the system with his right cybernetic socket-arm.
"The ship is taking off." Hunter's voice warned in the comms. "Get out of there now."
"Hurry, Echo..." Omega said.
"It's extremely sealed. I can't open it."
"Of course not." Fern's jaw tightened in frustration as she moved her light torch in every corner of the container, looking for any possible alternative egress. She could feel the vessel resonating underneath her feet. "We're going for a ride..."
"Hunter," Omega called. "we're trapped in the container. We can't get out!"
"On our way. Hang tight."
Fern couldn't gather what Hunter and Wrecker could possibly do to reach them and get them out as the transporter was ascending, but there wasn't any time to worry about it. "There must be another way out of here. A hatch that leads to the main hold of the transporter...We can possibly get out in an escape pod...No, the moment we open any door, there will an alarm and they'll know we're here."
"Hunter, where are you?" Omega called in her comm.
"Sorry, kid...We got a little sidetracked. You need to get off that ship before it jumps to hyperspace."
"Looks like we will be undertaking Fern's plan, after all." Tech said and started for another hatch to hack into. He started the process on the first one he approached. "Woah, woah, woah, Tech." Fern waved her hands. "How do you know this is the right door?"
"Why? What happens if he is wrong?" Omega questioned.
"If I am incorrect," Tech answered, still tapping away on his datapad. "we will instantly be sucked out and perish."
"Nice bedside manner..." Both Echo and Fern grumbled under their breaths.
"I am seldom wrong." Tech shrugged, and with that the panel door slid up, revealing a bright-red lit hallway. Fern had to admit she slightly flinched at the idea she would falling to her death right then if he had been wrong. "Great, wonderful, Tick, really." She patted his shoulder. "Now, you and Echo grab that chest. Omega and I will keep lookout and lead the way."
"You do not know the way." Tech stated, which made Fern rolled her eyes.
"Then how about handing over the device that will show me the way, huh?" She held her open palm with one brow raised. "That way, you can carry that heavy chest with both hands." Though the intellectual clone was unamused by her tone, he did as he was told and helped Echo with one end of the treasure. The four clones then stealthfully made their way towards the escape pods, hiding and avoiding the few guards aboard. To Fern's surprise, the hatch opening had not triggered an alarm of her knowledge, so it seemem luck was on their side.
She spoke too soon...
After entering into another corridor, they were confronted by a patrolling squad. "Dank Ferrik!" Fern gritted through her teeth as she, Tech, and Omega opened fire with their stun blasters and seeking cover on either side of the hall, while Echo searched for an alternate route to the escape pods.
"They just ejected all of the escape pods!" he exclaimed. Tech silenced the guards with a stun grenade and zapped the last one and joined Echo at the control pad. "There has to be another way off this ship."
"The only other option I see is hijacking the entire vessel." Fern huffed. "Unless you got some plan stuffed in that big brain of yours." Fern looked down at Omega, whose eyes were gazing around like she was scanning it. "What is it, Half-Pint?"
"This is...a class four freighter, isn't it?"
"Yes, why?"
"Containers on class four freighters are equipped with reentry thrusters. We can escape in a cargo container."
Tech stopped what he was doing on the controls and retrieved his datapad from Fern and checked Omega's facts. "You are correct. I am impressed."
"You really have been studying hard, haven't you?" Fern patted the top of the young clone's head. "Alright, let's stop wasting time and get back to the container. Our window of opportunity is quickly closing. Drop the chest."
"But—" Echo began to object.
"We'll pick out a better one when we're back on the surface." Fern pushed him along. "Let's go." They all raced back the way they came, escaped a few more skirmishes with guards, and arrived back where they started. "Hurry, Tech."
"That's it. Initiating cargo release."
As if on cue, the entire container shuttered underneath their feet. "Come on, we need to brace ourselves against something!" Fern grabbed Omega's hand and the four of them rushed back to a metal standing structure that had thick, tightly-bound leather walls that would protect them from chests and other dangerously heavy cargo that would be eventually tumbling about as they all plunged back to the surface. That is, until the thruster boosters kicked on...
"Go on, Omega." Fern and Tech forcefully pulled up on the leather straps so the young clone could slip under. Echo followed after her. But before the other two could join, zero gravity took hold and if they were not gripping to the straps for deal life, they would flying about the container.
"Help, Tech..." Fern whimpered as one of her hands was slipping from her body was being flung upward.
"Hang on!" Tech's hand slammed on top of hers, locking his long fingers around them and the leather bars. "It is most concerning that we are still falling and accelerating in speed!"
"Don't worry! They should engage soon!" Omega yelled.
"If they don't, we're all dead!" Echo shouted. From the closed-in side, he grasped Fern's other hand with his human one to secure it as well. "I got you, Fern!"
Abruptly, gravity switched back on and Fern body-slammed Tech into the floor, her face knocked into the back of his helmet. "Ow..." she groaned as she rolled off, which was awkward with her backpack on.
"Told you." Omega sighed in relief.
"Other than not being able to steer or control where we land, I would say this is going well." Tech exclaimed as he rose to his feet and dust himself off.
"You just had to say that..." Fern grumbled, still lying on the floor. Tech reached down and helped her. At the same time, their comms erupted with Hunter's voice. "Fern, were you able to secure an escape pod?"
"Um, not exactly." Fern sucked air through her teeth. "Good news is we found a different mode of transportation."
"Good news? What's the bad news?"
"My calculations have us crashing towards the upper forest region of the planet." Tech answered that question.
"Crashing?!"
Suddenly, the giant container began to quake, shaking Fern and Tech off balance and slamming them into the leather barrier between them and Echo and Omega, who was knocked into the former's arms from the same force. Fern clutched Tech's arm and pressed her face into his shoulder as they both braced themselves against it. They could feel the momentum of their "vessel" crumbling to a halt until it finally ended. The female clone found herself still clinging to Tech's arm as her eyes fluttered open and her stressful breathing relaxed. She quickly let go and began assisting Omega and Echo to get to the outside.
"Heh. Nothing to it." Fern actually smiled, completely surprised they had survived the ordeal.
"Fern, are you there? Report." Hunter's static voice sounded.
"We are alive." Fern huffed with relief. "But we have no idea where we are. The Empire will definitely be looking for their crates though, and most likely us as well."
"Get out of whatever you are and out of sight and lay low." Hunter instructed. "I'll contact you the moment Wrecker and I get back to the Marauder and we'll come for you."
"Roger that." Fern smiled, then looked to the other three. "Come on, let's get to the front and get out of here. I'm sick of this place."
"Funny, since you couldn't keep your hands off this stuff when we first arrived." Echo pointed out.
"Ha ha," Fern rolled her eyes.
As they made their way up to the ceiling-high hatch, the floor beneath them shudder, stopping them in their tracks. "What is that?" Omega whimpered.
"Go back." Fern's eyes widened. "Go back!"
"We haven't fully landed yet!" Echo agreed.
As they scurried as fast as they could, the slope grew steeper and steeper. Chests and crates were toppling and crashing downward all around them until the entire container dropped vertically. Fern screamed as gravity claimed her balance and she and everyone else began dropping. Echo and Omega bounced off the leather bound walls while Fern once again crashed on top of Tech, this time on his chest.
"Fern, look out!" Before she could even breathe, she heard Tech shout and he shoved her off of him, just before a giant crate crunched down on Tech's entire left leg.
"Tech!" Omega gasped.
"Tech..." Fern found her voice after all the air had been knocked out. She then scrambled to her shaking legs to help Echo push off the heavy box off of him. She then knelt down at his left side.
"Are you okay?" Omega asked, worried.
Tech's voice strained under the pain. "My left femur, has been fractured by approximately, 150 kilograms of pressure...so...no."
"Hang tight." Echo said. "I'll go top side and scope this out."
"Omega, go with him." Fern instructed. The young girl nodded and the two of them headed off, leaving the female clone alone with the 'hero of the day'. She raised her brow at him. "So, are you going to tell me the truth or what?"